Summer job at a sno-ball stand leads to Jefferson Parish candidate’s disqualification

A summer job at a sno-ball stand wound up costing Amanda Eberts a chance to run for a seat in the state House of Representatives.

Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24th Judicial District Court disqualified Eberts from running for the Kenner-based House District 92 seat on Monday for failing to file a 2020 tax return for her work at Flavors Snoballs & Ice Cream.

The ruling leaves two candidates in the race: incumbent state Rep. Joe Stagni and former Kenner City Council member Mike Sigur. Both are Republicans.

The lawsuit challenging Eberts’ candidacy was filed by Linda Scharwath, wife of Kenner City Council member Ronnie Scharwath, who is a Stagni supporter.

The lawsuit accused Ebert of failing to file tax returns for one or more years between 2018 and 2021. Louisiana requires candidates to certify that they filed state and federal tax returns for the previous five years, unless they weren’t required to, in order to run for office.

At Monday’s hearing, Eberts argued that she wasn’t required to file returns given her lack of income.

Kovach, however, determined that Eberts should have filed a 2020 return, given that she earned more than $400 that year working for Flavors Snoballs & Ice Cream.

Eberts, a Republican who graduated from Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy in 2021, didn’t respond to a request for comment. She has 24 hours to appeal Kovach’s decision.